Empty Caves
by Flickerlucky
Summary: With the sudden disappearance of the human who murdered much of Monsterkind, the new leader has set out to find out what remained of the king and the seventh soul.


Keeping the Monster Kingdom together was terrifying. Alphys would have thought herself the last possible candidate for it, and yet here she was. As one of the few remaining monsters left that weren't terrified out of their wits, she was somehow voted as the leader of the small group of survivors.

It was less than a week since a human – a _human_ , what were the odds that the seventh one was the killer – appeared suddenly in western Snowdin. And yet, in those five days, they had killed sixty percent of those living in Snowdin, seventy percent of Hotland, seventy five percent of Waterfall, virtually all of those working in the Core that day, and the king.

And then, all the sudden, the human seemed to disappear altogether, completely off the radar in a single instant. The barrier still held, no additional stragglers who had failed to flee in time were killed, and the dust that covered the streets and trails that the human had traveled on were undisturbed except by wind.

And so, Alphys, former Royal Scientist and newly elected leader of the surviving monsters, had decided to take a quick trip from the caves that the temporary evacuation settlement was set up in and see if there was any hint as to what happened. At the very least, she would be able to collect the dust of the King, and begin the mass funeral.

Claws clicked on cold stone as she made her way up the deserted capital city New Home, winding up carved paths to the castle. There wasn't as much dust as she thought there was, but every breath she took made her feel guilty and wonder who she was accidentally ingesting.

She passed through a corridor, into the Judgement Hall, a lovely stained-glass stretch of hallway that led into the castle. And then she froze.

There was clear and very deep gouges everywhere in the stone, and every single window was completely shattered. A pillar or two had collapsed, and all along the floor were deep cracks and blast marks. The roof held hints of something being mashed very hard up against it. All over the hall, there were splotches of a dark rusty brown… Human blood, copiously spilled, and several hours old. It smelled horrible, rotten and pervasive and pressing against her on all sides.

There certainly was quite the fight here… Maybe it mortally injured the human? But then how would they have killed the king? Or perhaps… was this the marks of the king's fight?

Then she saw, underneath an untouched red-stained pile of dust, a little blue jacket. It was torn all the way from shoulder to waist, and there was a red substance hardening around edges of the slice. It smelled slightly sweet, almost sickly so.

It was the remains of Sans. Alphys held her breath, taking in the details from the room once more with a more analytical eye. Some of the things that Sans did were queer, yes, and unexplainable. She definitely knew better than to question him about it by now. But he somehow managed to cause this much destruction, and held out against the human for a lot longer than expected, if the variety of marks as well as amount of blood spilled were any indication.

She continued, slowly, down the hallway, observing the streak of blood that seemed to drag from the end of the corridor into the next. At this point, the human must have been severely injured, and yet still – through pure **DETERMINATION** , - they continued to pull through and ignore their terrible amount of bleeding and probably many broken bones (judging by the cracks on the ceiling, Alphys was willing to bet that Sans had something to do with that).

She stepped into the throne room, and stopped.

The first thing her eyes fixed upon was the softly glowing red blade, casting an eerie glow on everything else in the low light that barely shown through the stained windows. It seemed to glimmer with a hidden light, malicious and alive.

Then she noted the dust that hung in the air, and the faint acrid scent of a shattered soul. Asgore was dead for sure.

Then she saw the torn remains of a single flower, with large gouges torn deeply into the ground around it as if the human could barely hold the blade, yet so desperately wanted to destroy the single flower.

She wondered, absentmindedly, if it was the same flower that she had synthesized a conscious into. Maybe they had attempted to fight back… Perhaps this was where it left to go live out the rest of its life after she had given it determination. She would have been slightly pleased that _something_ she made had a happy life, if not for its dead remains in front of her.

Finally, she caught sight of something, near the back of the room. Alphys stepped gingerly around the torn remains of the flower and gaped as the narrow light of the blade exposed it. It was the human. Crouching against the far wall, the knife resting a ways away from their feet, their eyes dull and downcast.

She noticed the large stab wound in their stomach, the dust coating every inch of exposed skin and caking their sweater, and _the fact that their eyes flickered towards her as she came near._

Alphys yelped, scampering back, as the human mustered a small, almost pitiable smile. Pitiable if they hadn't just committed mass genocide. They reached up (Alphys stiffened) and softly touched their forehead, in a messy salute. It took a moment for her to realize it was a sign. " _Hi_."

" _Been waiting a while for you to come, Alphys…_ " they licked their dusty lips a little. " _What took you so long_?" Their hands flicked about, messily yet still very practiced. Even if they hadn't spoken once, they seemed to know how to sign well. Then they hacked a cough and a thin spray of red splattered across their sweater.

She didn't know what she expected, but she hadn't expected the murderer, the psychopath, to be physically mute. She had just assumed the silence was more for the menacing effect.

They fingered the knife, staring for a moment into the soft glow. They squinted slightly in even that barest glow.

"W-w-why?" Her voice was weak and scared, but at the same time burning with barely hidden fury. She had as much intent on cowering away from the human as she was killing them while she had the chance.

The human coughed again, but this time only a thin stream of blood started to leak from their mouth, and their hands shuddered. " _I… I haven't been myself lately. I wanted to say sorry_." They seemed to grimace a little, and a thin stream of blood leaked from the corner of their mouth. God, humans were messy.

Alphys was equal parts disgusted and intrigued. Sorry? After all of what they had done?

The scientist shook her head. "S-so what now? Going to hunt down everyone else in the underground? Go back up and join your kind? Kill them too?" Her voice grew stronger with each sentence, as rage burned a cold flame in her to combat her fear.

The human blinked at her for a moment, as if losing energy or motivation to speak. " _I don't have a second soul to help me leave. I can't pass through the barrier. Besides, I'm bleeding out, see?_ " They gestured weakly to the stab wound, which they seemed to have spent no effort cleaning even after all this time.

She gagged at the rotten diseased smell that emanated from it. " _I have hours left here, before everything is wiped…_ " Their face seemed genuinely sad for a moment, before melting back to the neutral facade. " _Sorry about this all… in another time, we would have been… friends?_ "

Alphys was reeling from the information at this point. How did the human look over the point of their escape so drastically? Did they mean to shatter Asgore's soul, or was it one final sacrifice from their king? Mortally wound them and leave them to die alone?

And then she realized the plot. Wait for her to come here, tempt her with misinformation and vague words of hope, and then kill her and use her soul to pass the barrier. Of _COURSE_! It was all so simple, how did she miss it? 

She took a step back, and then another. The human's eyes widened, but they seemed to misinterpret. " _I mean, I know that's long gone now, but just wanted to say,_ " their hands flew, throwing up a light cloud of dust into the air. Alphys wheezed from the harsh assault on her lungs, but now she could see straight through the ploy. No way was she getting near that knife, that human.

"H-how could I ev-ver become f-f-friends with you?" She demanded, angrily. She had the dust of a hundred monsters on her claws, countless drying tears on her face, and the wrath of an entire race behind her. She wasn't the same cowardly Alphys before, and she wouldn't be convinced of _anything_ that this human said.

" _I can reset the timeline,_ " they signed, expression almost flippant despite it's persistent neutrality, and momentarily shattered the rage behind her. How pathetic, that she should grow instantly interested the moment they said anything. " _As I said, I haven't been myself, and I wouldn't have ever wanted this to happen._ " Their expression suddenly drew thoughtful for a moment. " _Do you have anything that can continue existing outside of time?_ "

They asked it as if it were a common thing, not something theoretically impossible. But she hadn't been top researcher and specialist in **Determination** for nothing, and knew the possibilities that it gave creatures that possessed it. If the creature so needed, they could attempt to drag everything back with them to the point before death. But this… This would require a lot more than she had _ever_ found, much more than the amount in every amalgamate (and flower) she ever experimented on. Probably as much as the other six human souls combined.

She guessed that's what fueled them so long. "So why haven't you? If you can do that so easily." She started thinking of what they said before: Objects that continue to exist outside of time… She felt something vaguely familiar tickle her memory, but what? Or who... She dismissed the thought.

They stopped moving for a moment, staring at the knife, before shaking themselves slightly and looking back at her. " _I'm not strong enough to do that anymore, and the one who can caused all of this… Soon, I'll have no use, and I'll die. You can take my SOUL however you wish, but I don't think it'll last long… This run took a lot out of me._ " Their hands fell to their chest, the knife weakly kicked across the floor and sliding up – slick with blood – to touch Alphys' foot. Then, there was a tiny clicking noise, and the human's soul was laid bare. It glowed a crimson (same as their blood, running so fresh still out of many of their orifices). However, along the normally smooth surface, there were tiny cracks and crevices, as if it were glued together improperly. It vibrated minutely along these edges, shifting around slightly as if falling apart. 

" _Do you mind killing me? I can't really manage it at this point._ " Though... that was only an assumption as to what they said. It was awfully garbled. And their hands fell to the floor. 

Alphys stared at the knife, not believing her eyes. The human was asking for her to KILL them? That certainly wasn't what she initially thought their plan was.

As she took it up in shaking claws, the human stared at her with vague dark red eyes. Their chest rose and fell lightly, quickly, and they really didn't seem all that dangerous in that moment. She stared at the soul, and barely tapped the knife's edge against the cracked red surface. It made a sound akin to tapping silverware against a glass, before it splintered and broke into fragments.

The human sighed, and slumped downwards. Their fingers relaxed and their head, propped up by the wall, slid down to the floor. The light in their eyes, which had been already wavering, sputtered out completely. The many broken pieces of the soul clattered to the ground, briefly corporeal before dissolving into a fine dust. Just like all the monsters they had slain, so too did their being turn to dust.

Alphys gasped and dropped the knife as if it grew white-hot under her claws, and backed away a couple more steps from the corpse. It didn't respond to her hyperventilating (oh my god I just killed someone), and the red dust shifted slightly in its small pile as she slid down a wall and sat on the floor.

If they were truthful about the timeline resets, then it would probably happen soon, before the mind could be lost completely.

She took out the ever present notebook that she kept on her, for whatever purpose it served from potential solutions to new problems to grocery lists (not that she's done that for years). She scrawled, in shaky handwriting, "DETERMINATION – FULL RESET OF TIMELINE FROM CERTAIN POINT" before her pen was broken, splattering ink everywhere, by her fumbling, too-tight grip. She shook her head, and stared back up at the human. 

Alphys yelped as she noticed the red dust of the human soul rising up in the air in a small spiral. Briefly, she noticed how everything seemed to bend towards the clump (including herself). Then she panicked as her claws seemed to unravel, and her eyesight wavered.

The ground underneath her tore apart into base atoms, cracks formed in the air, and all of it centered on the clump. The very air around her shivered and splintered and sucked away like a huge vacuum before she could even shout in alarm. Then, Alphys blinked…

…and she was back in her lab. Her suit was immaculately clean compared to before (It still had those old stains down the front). Her claws were whole. She had no blood on her, nor dust. It was almost like it was all a dream.

Almost.

She stared into space for one… two… moments, before yelling, as loud as she possibly could. She felt so stressed, so horribly unwell, that it took her a long while for her to calm down from that. And by then she was on the floor, clutching her head. It had to be real, it just had to be, and she remembered every moment of that horrible timeline.

The face of a white-pink ghost bobbed into view, with a look of concern. "Alphys?" Mettaton asked uncertainly, and she shut her eyes. She couldn't handle it right now, not even for her friend.

This continued for a moment, as she struggled to get her breath back as much as she could. Mettaton eventually lied down next to her, as silent as he could be and staring up at the ceiling. At least he was thoughtful enough not to interrupt her while she went through this breakdown.

As her gasps turned to silent sobs, she choked out a 'thanks' and Mettaton nodded. They both continued to lie there, and she slowly tried to put herself together.

She could remember… so… much… Every single moment that had happened before. She remembered the knife, the blood, the dust… She remembered the human, who had appeared so suddenly from the ruins. It had to be a dream… it had to be one…

That was when she lurched to her feet, and stumbled to her computer monitor. Her claws scratched abrasively into the surface as she almost tripped herself. Quickly she switched on the Snowdin entrance camera, hidden in a bush. A sudden loud thumping started to ring through the speakers.

Alphys was treated to a delightful view of the very same human, tapping on the camera lens. They, too, seemed unrealistically clean after that last encounter.

Her ghostly friend floated behind her, a look of mild worry on his face. But he didn't mention anything. She was so lucky to know him. Even if he is rather ridiculous a lot of the time, he was such a good friend to her.

After adjusting her camera lens a little to focus on the human, they seemed to notice the movement. Looking pleased with themselves, they started hurriedly signing something.

Alphys' tired and emotionally wrecked head barely kept up with them, but she could make out some parts. " _Can you remember me,_ " or " _Sorry_." Their eyes were bright once again, but squinting against the glare that the snow reflected. She adjusted her camera again, to communicate her understanding.

They nodded, as if to themselves, before staring off to the right and waving to the camera. Then they ran off, leaving Alphys with a view of the pretty conifers that populated Snowdin. 

The scientist sat back in her chair, shuddering. So… It wasn't a dream, or that human was very good with guesswork. She didn't care which one, she didn't believe in miracles. The reset had worked… But were they going to travel down the same path?

...

When, a day later, a sweaty panting human waved amiably at Alphys inside her lab with a goofy-looking tutu on and not a speck of dust caught on their hands, she decided to lay her worries to rest.


End file.
